The European Public Health Association (EUPHA) is a major player in the European public health area. Since our establishment in 1992, EUPHA has been growing and has an increasing influence on the public health dialogue in Europe.
EUPHA will continue her activities in 2018, fully in line with the 3rd Health Programme of the European Commission. In order to be a leading actor in the public health arena in Europe, we will be introducing a number of new initiatives made possible through the additional funding of the 2018 operating grant. EUPHA identifies the following operational targets for 2018:
1. Strengthening national public health associations;
2. Advocating for public health on the European agenda;
3. Representing the European voice at global level and supporting public health at global level;
4. Providing actively and accurately the evidence to make informed practice and policy decisions in the field of public health;
5. Nurturing the expertise and knowledge on specific public health topics;
6. Preparing the future generation of public health professionals for their leadership role in public health.
EUPHA’s strong organisation, with 25 years of experience, is a solid basis to contribute to the objectives of the Third Health Programme and to play a key role in the European public health area.
The European Public Health Association (EUPHA) is a major player in the European public health arena. Since our establishment in 1992, EUPHA has been growing and has an increasing influence on the public health dialogue in Europe. With the funding under an operating grant from the European Union’s Health Programme in 2018, EUPHA continued to expand activities to influence the European public health policy and contribute to the Third Health Programme. In 2018, the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) worked on six operational targets, i.e.:
1. Strengthening national public health associations;
2. Advocating for public health on the European agenda;
3. Representing the European voice at global level and supporting public health at global level;
4. Providing actively and accurately the evidence to make informed practice and policy decisions in the field of public health;
5. Nurturing the expertise and knowledge on specific public health topics; and
6. Preparing the future generation of public health professionals for their leadership role in public health.
EUPHA’s strong organisation, with 26 years of experience, is a solid basis to contribute to the objectives of the Third Health Programme and to play a key role in the European public health area.
EUPHA’s vision of improving health and well-being and narrowing health inequalities for all Europeans perfectly aligns with the general objective of the European Commission’s Third Health Programme (3HP) which aims to improve the health of Union citizens and reduce health inequalities by promoting health, encouraging innovation in health, increasing sustainability of health systems and protecting Union citizens from serious cross-border health threats.
EUPHA’s main objective ‘to build capacity and knowledge in the field of public health and health services research with the aim of supporting evidence-informed practice and policy decisions’ fits in with the third specific objective of the Third Health Programme that aims to support public health capacity building and contribute to innovative, efficient and sustainable health systems.
In a rapidly changing society, there is a constant need for building capacity and knowledge in the field of public health and encouraging the interaction between research, policy and practice and organising training and education that meets the ever-changing needs of society as a whole. In 2018, EUPHA increased its efforts to support and develop a European-wide network of engaged and interconnected public health professionals.
EUPHA’s working methods in 2018 are:
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European Journal of Public Health (EJPH)
The EJPH is a bimonthly refereed scientific journal, that provides a forum for discussion and debate on contemporary international public health issues with a focus on the European Region. The current (2017) impact factor is 2.782 and with a five year impact factor of 2.902. The EJPH provides the evidence-base for all EUPHA activities. The EJPH is distributed to members of our national public health associations, partner organisations, representatives from the European Commission (DG SANTE and DG Research) and WHO Regional office for Europe, as well as to the chair, vice-chairs, and members of the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament. EUPHA co-finances the EJPH editorial office, established at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2018, five supplements were published:
1. 1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health - Abstract Supplement
2. Natural Experiments for Evaluating Chronic Disease Policy Interventions
3. How to Navigate Political Landscapes: Towards a Public Health Political Science
4. 11th European Public Health Conference -Winds of change: towards new ways of improving public health in Europe. Ljubljana, Slovenia from 28 November -1 December 2018.
5. Health in Crises: Migration, Austerity and Inequalities in Greece and Europe
And two e-collections were published:
1. Health promotion and the need for a multisectoral approach
2. Facing the facts: Challenges in vaccinating Europe
E-collections are an online only collection of articles published in the EJPH in the past 3-5 years on a specific topic. A new editorial links the collection of articles to the current situation in Europe. E-collections are open-access for a 3-month period.
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The European Public Health Conference (EPH Conference)
The EPH Conferences are scientific-based conferences organised annually throughout Europe. The EPH Conference aims to build capacity and knowledge as well as policy and is known for its networking capabilities and has about 1,600-2,000 participants each year. EUPHA plays an important role in the organisation of the conference, which includes ensuring the scientific quality of the conference.
In 2018, the EPH conference took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 28 November till 1 December. As always, EUPHA had a major role to play in the organisation and programme of the conference. EUPHA (co-)organised 96 activities in the Ljubljana programme, i.e. 1 Plenary session on ‘Public’s awareness of public health challenges: How to get our public health messages heard?’; 10 Pre-conferences; 49 workshops/round table/ skills building; 1 lunch symposium; 23 Networking meetings of the 22 EUPHA sections and 1 EUPHAnxt meeting; 7 Member meetings (Six national associations of public health took the opportunity to organise a country meeting where all conference delegates from that country were invited to discuss national public health issues as well as increased visibility at EPH Conferences); 3 Extra events (EUPHAnxt organised two mentoring sessions and there was an opportunity to take a profile picture for official CVs and LinkedIn). Furthermore, all EUPHA’s internal meetings (EUPHA Governing Board, Executive Council, working groups, advisory committees, etc.) were organised before or during the Ljubljana 2018 conference.
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EUPHA seminar in Brussels on vaccine confidence
We organised the seminar 'Vaccine confidence in Europe: a time for action’ on 7 November in Brussels. Organising such seminar in Brussels allowed European policymakers to attend. Several conclusions arise from this seminar. First of all, joint action is needed to boost vaccine confidence in Europe. Also, multi-stakeholder involvement is needed to look at the full breadth of the issue. The four country case studies (Italy, Poland, UK, and Albania) showed that there are national and local factors that have an effect on vaccine confidence. ‘It’
EUPHA’s key deliverables in 2018 are:
1. Action plan for collaboration with NPHAs
2. Summary report on the status of the new EUPHA strategy 2020-2025
3. Overview of the responses of EUPHA to public consultations posted by the European Commission
4. Ljubljana statement: European Public Health Conference-linked statement related to the theme of 2018 conference held 28 November to 1 December 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia: ‘Winds of change: towards new ways of improving public health in Europe’ that is endorsed by national associations and our partners.
5. Progress report on health-related SDGs: A report on the progress towards the health-related sustainable development goals in Europe.
6. Summary report on a seminar about vaccination
7. Statement and report on the 1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health
8. Summary report of representing the European voice at global level
9. EUPHA newsletters
10. Report on policy briefs and press briefings on current public health topics
11. Publication on chronic diseases, based on key messages from EPH conference
12. Summary report on working with the European Solidarity Corps: A summary report of the capacity building activity that is under taken throughout the year with internship placements through the European Solidarity Corps.
13. Report of EUPHA activities at the European Public Health Conference
14. Report on the EJPH activities: Report on the activities of the European Journal of Public Health at the end of the year
15. EUPHA annual report
16. Leaflet on 4-year programme: A leaflet describing EUPHA’s submitted FPA 2018-2021
17. Dissemination strategy
For 2018, the following target groups are identified: National Public Health Associations; Individual public health professionals; EUPHA sections; European and national policymakers; Students and young professionals (SYPs); European citizens. For each target group, the impact of the main outputs are highlighted in the following.
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National Public Health Associations
In 2018, we collaborated more closely with National Public Health Associations (NPHAs) of countries that had an EU presidency, i.e. Bulgaria and Austria. In collaboration with the Bulgarian member EUPHA promoted the two public health related presidencies’ conferences (i.e. ‘Healthy Future for Europe: Healthy Nutrition in Children’ and the conference on patients’ needs for informed access to medicines). The promotion of these two events gave additional attention to the two public health related events that were held during the presidency.
To support the Austrian presidency an e-collection was published on the need for multisectoral approaches for health promotion activities. This e-collection was very supportive for the Austrian members to communicate the evidence base related to one of the presidencies conferences.
We have also been working more intensively with the UK Faculty of Public Health to support them in their Brexit for Health campaign.
Furthermore, in 2018, the collaboration with EUPHA members on the health-related Sustainable Development Goals was taken up. For this, the office managed to produce 44 country newsletters. Extensive answers were provided – as well as appreciation for the work done to create an informative overview of the country.
At the European Public Health Conference 2018, held 28 November till 1 December 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, EUPHA organised three workshops with its members. This positively impacted the visibility of EUPHA members at the conference.
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Individual public health professionals
EUPHA’s tools to reach, inform and educate individual public health professionals, include the European Public Health Conference, the EUPHA newsletter, and the European Journal of Public Health (EJPH). In 2018, we reached even more individual public health professionals:
- The EUPHA newsletter subscriptions increased, with 19`528 subscribers from 157 countries worldwide in 2018, the newsletter continues to be one of the most visible and highly appreciated tools of EUPHA.
- Providing preferential rates for the European Public Health conference from delegates from Slovenia and surrounding countries – thereby increasing the number of participants from the region.
- Open access to the papers that are selected for the two e-collections that were published in 2018.
by e.g. preferential rates to participate in Ljubljana 2018 and by providing open access to numerous articles published in the EJPH through e-collections.
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EUPHA sections
Researchers, policymakers and practitioners working in the field of public health are presented in EUPHA sections. The EUPHA sections are networks for 22 theme-specific sections. Like in other years, these networks are used for knowledge sharing and capacity building. In 2018, EUPHA supported two sections that organised a satellite meeting, namely the EUPHA Section on Migrant and ethnic minority health and the EUPHA section on Public health practice and policy.
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European and national policymakers
Advocating for public health on the European agenda and ensuring that policy decisions are evidence-based are key aims of EUPHA. To achieve these objectives we reach out to European and national policymakers through the ‘Voice of EUPHA’. We applied multiple tools engage this target group, such as the publication of policy briefs, e-collections, factsheet, and holding a seminar.
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Students and young professionals (SYPs)
EUPHAnxt – the EUPHA network for students and early career researchers, policymakers and professionals in the field of public health – is essential to EUPHA,
1. Strengthening the role of national public health associations
To strengthen the role of national public health associations (NPHAs), EUPHA applied several tools. The annual member meeting was organised back-to-back with the European Public Health Conference in Ljubljana, where several skills-building and networking activities were organised for our members. Satellite meetings (i.e. on health policy, migration and health, and vaccination) were co-organised to provide more in-depth information. NPHAs were informed and invited to actively participate in the setting up and dissemination of EUPHA statements, by e.g. organising translation. EUPHA members had (financial) support to attend conferences/meetings, to further their knowledge and skills.
It was expected to increase the number of countries represented among the EUPHA members. The number of represented countries in the network did not increase (still 45 out of 53 countries in the European region). Instead, the existing members were strengthened. And talks started with countries that do not have a National Public Health Association to establish one. There were talks with Ukraine, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Central Asia (i.e. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan).
2. Advocating for public health on the European agenda
In 2018 EUPHA and its members did a lot of advocacy work. Through active use of various channels, including the website, twitter, EUPHA newsletter, publications, and seminar, EUPHA’s visibility is increasing. Since 2018, we are working more closely with our national members in countries with an upcoming EU presidency. Support to EUPHA’s Bulgarian and Austrian members during their countries’ presidency resulted in direct positive feedback from those members. Also the EU presidencies coordination meeting (where all EUPHA members with upcoming EU presidencies were invited) which was held early December, had a high turn up and constructive input, indicating that this activity is much valued.
Through regular publication of statements and short reports on public health issues in Europe, we communicate the scientific knowledge into short, clear messages. Through the ‘Voice of EUPHA’, one of our dissemination tools that contains a mailing list with key stakeholders, we inform the European Commission, European Parliament, WHO Europe office, and partner organisations.
With the hiring of a marketing and communication strategic officer, an analysis of what EUPHA can and should improve will help EUPHA to further develop a strong voice for public health in Europe. Based on the initial advise from this marketing and communication strategic officer, the promotion of the AMR webinar and vaccine confidence seminar was improved, also new promotional strategies were experimented with (e.g. regular twitter updates, use of other social media).
Furthermore, it was expected to have a strong presence at the European Public Health conference in Ljubljana. The aim was to have 10 workshops, though in the end there were 47 workshops organised by EUPHA and the EUPHA sections. Another overachievement was the publication of an e-collections, which ended up being two e-collections, i.e. on vaccines and on health promotion and the need for a multisectoral approach.
3. Representing the European voice at global level and supporting public health at global level
EUPHA already supports world health days, accepts international members, partners with international organisations and sends representatives to attend international meetings and conferences. These activities were undertaken as planned. Furthermore, the European voice at global level was further supported by the joint organisation of the 2020 World Congress on Public Health in Rome, Italy. An additional achievement this year was the election of EUPHA’s past-president (Prof. Walter Ricciardi) being elected as incoming president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA).
In 2018, we disseminated our work through ‘the voice of EUPHA’. This dissemination tool contains a mailing list with key stakeholders of the European Commission, European Parliament, WHO Europe office, and partner organisations. This ensures targeted and relevant dissemination of our press releases, policy briefings and communications. In addition, ‘the voice of EUPHA’ developed several short videos of interviewing prominent public health figures on vaccination, AMR, health policy making and other similar public health themes.
We ensured that the dissemination and communication are aligned with the diverse needs of stakeholders and citizens. More emphasis was therefore placed on the dissemination of our work inside and beyond our network:
- We increased the information exchange with our members, the national public health associations in the European region, with our partners at European level and with European organisations. The format of this information exchange is mainly by email and by face-to-face activities;
- We organised a vaccine confidence seminar in Brussels for our members and European policymakers;
- We increased our presence and visibility at European level by having high-level meetings with European stakeholders and sending EUPHA representatives to high-level meetings;
- We intensified our collaboration with our European partners to allow for dissemination beyond our network;
- We ensured more open access to the evidence base by producing e-collections that are related to the European Journal of Public Health (EJPH) (with open access for a 3-month period) and open access EJPH supplement (health policy).
- We explored new ways of extending the dissemination of the content of the European Public Health conference (e.g. Ljubljana statement, webinar, report summarising key messages of the 2018 Chronic Diseases track and a widely available Healthy Europe magazine);
- We reached out to individual citizens through our national members; and
- We employed a marketing and communication strategic officer to further develop a strong voice for public health in Europe.
These dissemination activities resulted in many positive responses from key stakeholders on European level. The support and appreciation for our work is also evident from the increasing number of subscribers to the EUPHA newsletter and we saw an increase in the impact factor of the European Journal of Public Health.
The marketing and communication strategic officer evaluated EUPHA’s dissemination and communication approaches. With the help of a communication and marketing strategist, EUPHA has worked hard to set up a communication and marketing action plan, which will help us in increasing our advocacy as well as increase the visibility of our activities.